Asia: Stocks higher ahead of EU summit, China closed for holiday

Most stocks in Asia were higher thanks to advanced talks between Greece and its creditors.

The country submitted on Sunday night new proposals to the heads of the IMF, ECB and European Commission.

A crucial emergency EU summit is due on Monday, with Accendo Markets analysts saying it could "form the basis of a deal with creditors to provide access to much needed funds to avoid default on IMF debt and a collapse of its banks".

Investors were optimistic that a deal can be reached after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the latest proposals from Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras were a “good basis for progress.”

Driven by investor's optimism, the Nikkei 225 was up 1.26%. The yen was at ¥122.90 against the dollar.

Honda Motor rose 2.2% after confirming the death of a woman in Los Angeles last year was due to the rupture of a Takata airbag inflator. The news brings the number of fatalities related to the airbags to eight.

Still in Japan, Taisei Corp and Obayashi Corp jumped 2.56% and 3.5% respectively after reports that the construction companies will join a nuclear power plant project in Turkey led by the Japan and Turkey.

Elsewhere in China, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1.2% while the Shanghai composite index was closed for a holiday. Last week, Chinese stocks declined 13%, their worst fall since the global financial crisis.

Australia's ASX closed 0.24% up led by good performance in the utilities and telecom sectors.

Cardno, an infrastructure and environmental services company, was one of the best performers, jumping 11.36% in the Australian market.

In commodities, the oil price came under fresh pressure over the weekend after Saudi oil minister Ali Al-Naimi said the country was ready to use its 1.5 to 2m barrels per day of spare oil production capacity, if demand, led by emerging markets, increased to a level that would absorb "additional barrels" over the second half of this year.

As a result, Australian oil and gas company Santos fell 1.44% and Origin Energy declined 1.15%.